02 August 2016

Now Feyd is gone

I had intended to resume blogging with a much more cheerful topic, really I did. Feyd - my beautiful, big original Gold-Laced Wyandotte rooster - is gone. A medium-sized predator got into the electric perimeter last night, dug under the back board of the tractor, and managed to get Feyd and drag him off. Knowing Feyd, he probably bit the predator's nose bloody, and is giving it indigestion to boot. All five pullets that were in with Feyd are still here - Bigfoot's four sisters plus Azar's one daughter. I plan to gather up every egg they lay in the next ten days to hatch, before I put another rooster in with them.

Where the predator dug under, and some feathers from Feyd

This wasn't how I planned for Feyd to make his final exit ... after Feyd taking a chunk of skin off hubby's palm last week, I had decided Feyd deserved a proper death, as the centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner on the blue and white china platter. So much for plans.

another view of where the predator dug under

This is our fault. We had become complacent; we had become lax. We both had seen the broken eggshells , but thought the hens were kicking them out of the tractors. We have been lazy on keeping the grass down around the electronetting, so it could have been grounding out. Hubby immediately spotted where the fence was sown this morning.

We're not sure what we're dealing with - smaller than a bear (the bear would have caused much more damage) but larger than your average opossum or coon. Possibly a bobcat, or coyote, or loose dog, or maybe even a fox. Hubby says he will probably sit up tonight, hoping to shoot it.

This is on top of another rabbit loss Saturday. Out of the four young rabbits I bought, I sold one _ Runt - lost Hogger to a freak accident where he got both hocks jammed into the wire and tore skin and meat off trying to get loose, and now Roberta, the big girl, who like Hammy looked like she simply went to sleep and didn't wake up. That leaves me with Lacey from that group, plus Shalimar who is doing just peachy.

Lacey, remaining bunny from the NZ/Rex mix group I bought earlier this summer

Y a know, I forgot to snap a pic of Shalimar. She's in the shade now, and that will make it difficult to get a good pic because she is a solid dark blue (grey).

As for the long silence ... well, it seems this year that the more I am doing around here, the less I feel like blogging. I guess you could say I've been spending my energy doing, instead of just "talking" about it. By the time I'm done with evening milking, I usually just want to stop sweating, maybe take a shower, and lay down and either read, or just page through a knitting or crochet magazine, or cookbook, or through one of my herb books with lots of pictures.